The Estate Sale, or, Race in America, 1864

I spent part of the day studying the probate records of a man named Thomas Bayard, who died in 1864. Bayard was a farmer who lived just east of Odessa, Delaware, a prosperous man who owned a dozen horses, an "old pleasure carriage," six silver tea spoons, and a French silver watch. He was also black. He was one of the two richest African Americans in his part of Delaware, probably one of the ten richest in the whole state. When he died, he left a will calling for his whole estate to be sold, including the land, and the money divided among his heirs. Probably this was his children's own wish -- probably they wanted to move to the city or study for the ministry, so the farm was sold to further their ambitions. This made his estate sale a big event. The whole contents of a prosperous, up-to-date farm were auctioned off, from the cows to the bed sheets, and the whole neighborhood turned out to bid.

The thing that most fascinates me is that the bidders were about equally black and white, more than a dozen of each. The bidders included all the significant African American farmers from within ten miles as well as several white merchants from Odessa, a handful of prosperous white farmers, blacks who rented houses in Odessa town, and others. Six or seven bidders were women, again about half black and half white. The document at least shows no sign of segregation, as black names follow white names in haphazard order. They bought some of the same things, too. The women bid mainly on household items, although one bought a beehive, but the black and white men bid on everything. A wealthy white man bought some of Bayard's bed sheets and pillow cases. In the small section above (the sale spills across six pages), Brinckley, Segars and Griffin are African American families, but Stevens, Chambers, and Doughten were whites. As I looked at this, I thought, this must have been one of the most thoroughly integrated events in the history of Delaware. What could bring blacks and whites together in America? A bargain.

I was also intrigued by two of the quilts in the section above. Quilts typically sold for a dollar or two, as you can see, but two of Thomas Bayard's quilts sold for $5.00 and $4.70. Those must have been very fine quilts indeed to have brought that price from these practical farm folk. Some woman in Thomas Bayard's household must have been an ace quilt maker. I wonder if Joshua Brinckley was in inlaw, and if he and his wife were determined to keep grandma's best work in the family.